1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data processing, asset tracking and gate management in the airline industry. More particularly, this invention relates to methods and systems for an aviation entity (i.e., airlines, airports, aviation authorities) to better manage their aircraft gate/ramp parking function as it relates to the aircraft arrival/departure flow at a specified airport.
2. Description of the Related Art
The need for and advantages of management operation systems that optimize complex, multi-faceted, interdependent processes have long been recognized. Thus, many complex methods and optimization systems have been developed. However, as applied to management of the aviation industry, and specifically, the aircraft gate/ramp parking function, such methods often have been fragmentary or overly restrictive and have not addressed the overall optimization of key aspects of an airline's/airport's/aviation authority's operational/business goals.
The patent literature for the aviation industry's operating systems and methods is relatively sparse and includes: U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,714—“Method and System for Tactical Airline Management, U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,383—“Method And System For Aircraft Flow Management By Aviation Authorities”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,901—“Direct Entry Air Traffic Control System for Accident Analysis and Training,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,343—“Transit Schedule Generating Method and System,” U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,474—“Information Display Method and Apparatus for Air Traffic Control,” United Kingdom Patent No. 2,327,517A—“Runway Reservation System,” PCT International Publication No. WO 00/62234—“Air Traffic Management System,” and USPTO Publication Ser. No. US-2003-0050646-A1—“Method and System For Tracking and Prediction of Aircraft Trajectories.”
Airlines/airports/aviation regulatory authorities are responsible for matters such as the assignment and management for parking aircraft at gates and in specific ramp parking areas. Yet, in the current art, there appears to have been few successful attempts by the various airlines/airports/CAAs to make real-time, trade-offs between their different operational and business goals and the competing goals of other entities as they relate to the optimization of the safe and efficient parking of aircraft.
Many of the current airline gate assignment processes are often done too early (i.e., months in advance) and only manually changed on an individual aircraft by aircraft basis when things begin to deteriorate. Or, as is done by some airports, the process is done too late, after the aircraft land.
An obvious key aspect of any process to better manage the efficient assignment of gates and/or ramp parking is the predicted arrival time of the aircraft. Clearly, the aircraft must land before it can proceed to the assigned gate or ramp parking spot. Yet, in the current art, there has been, with a few exceptions, little success at accurately predicting aircraft and asset trajectories or the time sequencing of aircraft flows. Therefore, it is important to understand the variance, unpredictability and randomness inherent within the current art of aircraft flow into an airport.
In the prediction of the aircraft arrival time, one must account for all of the factors, including, but not limited to: weather, targeted aircraft flight speed, winds, air traffic control (ATC) actions, conflicting demands for landing space and times, wake turbulence, etc. For background information on this topic, see USPTO Publication Ser. No. US-2003-0050646-A1—“Method and System For Tracking and Prediction of Aircraft Trajectories.”
To better understand the aviation processes, FIG. 1 has been provided to indicate the various stages in a typical aircraft flight process. It begins with the filing of a flight plan by the airline/pilot with one of the many Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) throughout the world, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) within the U.S.
Next the pilot arrives at the airport, starts the engine, taxis, takes off and flies the flight plan filed with the aviation authority (i.e., route of flight). Once the aircraft is moving, if the aircraft is on an IFR flight plan, an ATC controller is responsible for ensuring that adequate separation is maintained between IFR aircraft. That said, the aviation authority (CAA's Air Traffic Control, i.e., ATC) system must approve any change to the trajectory of the aircraft.
As the aircraft approaches the destination airport, typical initial arrival sequencing (accomplished on a first come, first serve basis, e.g., the aircraft closest to the arrival fix is first, next closest is second and so on) is accomplished by the enroute ATC center near the arrival airport (within approximately 100 miles of the airport), refined by the ATC arrival/departure facility (within approximately 25 miles of the arrival airport), and then approved for landing by the ATC arrival tower (within approximately 10 miles of the arrival airport). Once on the ground, the aircraft is taxied to a gate (i.e., jetway) or ramp parking spot.
Current CAA practices for managing airport arrival flows to avoid overloads at arrival airports involve sequencing aircraft arrivals by linearizing an airport's traffic flow according to very structured, three-dimensional, aircraft arrival paths, 100 to 200 miles from the airport or by holding incoming aircraft at their departure airports. For a large hub airport (e.g., Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta), these paths involve specific geographic points that are separated by approximately ninety degrees; see FIG. 2. Further, if the traffic into an arrival fix to the airport is relatively continuous over a period of time, the linearization of the aircraft flow is effectively completed hundreds of miles from the arrival fix. This can significantly restrict all the aircraft's arrival speeds, since all in the line of arriving aircraft are limited to that of the slowest aircraft in the line ahead. Yet, even though the data and capability exists to update the aircraft trajectory to account for this linearization, it is rarely done. And even if it is done, the data is not transmitted to the gate management function to determine the impact or seek an alternative gate/ramp parking solution.
Further complicating the arrival flow is Mother Nature. If a twenty-mile line of thunderstorms develops over one of the structured arrival fixes—the flow of traffic stops. Can the aircraft easily fly around the weather? Many times—Yes. Will the structure in the current ATC system allow it? Most times—No. To fly around the weather, an arriving aircraft could potentially conflict with the departing aircraft, which the system structure dictates must climb out from the airport between the arrival fixes. Again, if this occurs, the aircraft trajectory is rarely updated, nor is the gate management process advised.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, the variation and randomness introduced into an aircraft arrival flow sequencing, although mostly predictable, is rarely accounted for in real time in the current art. Or if it is done, it is done late in the arrival process, when the aircraft is within 100 miles of the destination airport. This creates large variances (5, 10, and upwards of 30 minutes) in the predicted landing times, and therefore severe strains on the process of managing the gate/ramp parking management function.
Some aircraft land earlier than expected, some later; some aircraft are forced to wait for their gate, while other gates are open. All of which leads to inefficiencies, increased cost, lower profits and unhappy passengers (i.e., lower product quality).
Thus, despite the above noted prior art, airlines/airports/CAAs continue to need more efficient methods and systems for managing their gate/ramp parking assignment function. Therefore, given that the data and processing capability is now available to more accurately predict and match aircraft and gate trajectories, the present invention attempts to disclose such a more efficient gate management process.
3. Objects and Advantages
There has been summarized above, rather broadly, the prior art that is related to the present invention in order that the context of the present invention may be better understood and appreciated. In this regard, it is instructive to also consider the objects and advantages of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system which allows airlines/airports/CAAs to better achieve their specified operational and business goals and other specified goals with respect to the arrival and departure of a plurality of aircraft at a specified airport.
It is another object of the present invention to present a method and system for the real time management of gate/ramp parking that takes into consideration a wider array of real time parameters and factors than have heretofore been considered. For example, such parameters and factors may include: aircraft related factors (i.e., speed, fuel, altitude, route, turbulence, winds, weather, wake turbulence, crew legality, schedule, etc.), gate related factors (late/early arrivals, boarding congestion, gate departure congestion, ground services, maintenance requirements, passenger loading and offloading, cargo loading, fueling, crew availability, balancing time between arrivals and departures across all gates, departure queuing, etc.) and common asset availability (i.e., runways, taxiways, airspace, ATC services, etc.).
It is a yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and system that will enable airlines to increase their efficiency of operation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system that will allow an airline, airport or other aviation entity to enhance its overall operating efficiency, even at the possible expense of its individual components that may become temporarily less effective.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system that: (i) analyzes large amounts of real time information and other factors almost simultaneously, (ii) identifies system constraints and problems as early as possible, (iii) determines alternative possible gate/ramp parking assignment sets, (iv) chooses the better of the evaluated gate/ramp parking assignment sets, (v) implements the new solution, and (vi) continuously monitors all updated data to be determine if a better gate/ramp parking assignment solution set becomes available which can be implemented.
Finally, it is the overall object of the present invention to manage gate assignments at a specific airport in real time (“n” hours into the future, where “n” is typically 3 to 6 hours) so as to prevent a gate resource from becoming overloaded or underutilized.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent, as the invention is better understood by reference to the accompanying drawings and the detailed description that follows.